


The Courtship of Steve and Nat

by flipflop_diva



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, BAMF Natasha Romanov, F/M, POV Steve Rogers, Pre-Relationship, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 08:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7259278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time he saw her was after she was cursing older students on the Hogwarts Express. He might have fallen in love right then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Courtship of Steve and Nat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [guineamania](https://archiveofourown.org/users/guineamania/gifts).



> Happy MCU AU fest, guineamania! I hope you enjoy!

**[First Year]**

He was in the middle of sampling half of Bucky’s glorious candy stash — Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, Every Flavour Beans, the works — when they heard it: the sound of an explosion and then a cacophony of shouts from down the hall. Bucky was out of their compartment on the Hogwarts Express before Steve could even blink, but he didn’t waste any time following behind his best friend.

What they found was something Steve would never forget: a group of older students in green robes, covered in chicken feathers, glaring at a tiny little red-haired girl who was clenching a wand in her raised first, her eyes narrowed, her whole body shaking.

“Don’t you touch me again!” The little girl, dressed not in robes but in a dirty skirt and top that Steve had seen many Muggle girls his own age wear, yelled at the older students, who sneered at her.

A particularly nasty-looking one with black cropped hair took a step toward her. “Watch yourself, little Firstie, if you know what’s good for you.”

“I’m not scared of you!” The little girl raised her chin, defiance in her eyes, before Bucky stepped in then and broke it up.

Steve watched the little girl disappear down the hall, her red hair bouncing behind her.

“She’s a feisty one.” Bucky grinned at Steve, before heading back to their compartment.

Natasha, Steve learned a few hours later at the Sorting Ceremony. That was her name. She was Sorted into Slytherin. Steve was Sorted into Gyffindor. They were both eleven years old.

Steve was pretty sure love at first sight was real.

**[Second Year]**

Potions was not Steve’s subject. Quidditch, he could do. Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, even Transfiguration. But Potions. It was like a foreign language no one bothered to explain to him, and he was pretty confident their professor, Professor Pierce, hated him.

The day of their in-class exam, Steve’s stomach was a ball of knots. He felt like he was going to throw up. And of course by the time he got to class, delayed a few minutes by Bucky telling him about the latest girl he was going to ask out, the only available seat was by Natasha, the smartest girl in their year and Professor Pierce’s favorite.

“Don’t stress,” she whispered to him before the exam started. He couldn’t remember her ever talking to him before.

“Easy for you to say,” he muttered back.

Twenty minutes later Steve was pretty sure he really was going to throw up. Right here, in the middle of class. His potion was a brownish green, not nearly the sparkling turquoise it was supposed to be. 

He wondered if they would kick him out of Hogwarts for failing potions. He stared down at his ingredients, trying desperately to figure out where he went wrong, what he forgot. 

He didn’t notice she’d even moved until the sleeve of her robe brushed over his hand. His head shot up, mouth already open to yell at her, but the words died in his throat as his potion bubbled before him, and he watched it suddenly turn a brilliant turquoise blue.

He turned his head to look at her, but she was chopping dill and not paying him any heed.

“Rogers!” Pierce commanded. “Eyes on your own work!”

“Thank you,” Steve whispered to her later, as they were exiting the classroom, a passing grade in his hand.

Natasha didn’t answer. Bucky said later it obviously meant she liked him.

**[Third Year]**

Bucky wouldn’t have been caught dead studying in the library, which is why Steve liked it. It was quiet and serene, and for an hour or so a day, he could have time to himself. 

He told everyone it was because he was studying, but really it was because he was drawing. Pictures of Bucky, of his mom, of Hogwarts, of Quidditch.

Usually no one bothered him, until the day a pile of books dropped on the table right beside him. 

Steve looked up, a protest dying on his lips as he caught sight of long red hair. Natasha pointed to where she had just put her books.

“Can I?”

Steve cocked his head to the side. “Don’t your housemates frown on fellow Snakes cavorting with Gryffindors?”

Natasha’s lips curved into a smirk. “We’re not cavorting,” she said. “And I don’t care what they think.” She apparently took his lack of an answer for a yes and plopped down in the chair beside him. “Besides,” she said. “I want to see what you’re drawing. I can barely draw stick figures.”

Steve didn’t believe that. Natasha was good at everything. But how did she know he was drawing? He felt himself flush under her stare. 

“How did you …?”

“What?” she said. “Draw? I have eyes, Steve.”

So did other people, but no one else seemed to know his secret. Natasha pointed to his notepad. “Can I see?”

Steve gathered his courage and showed her the piece he was working on. She smiled and told him it was beautiful.

The next day he drew Natasha, the way she looked when she looked at his art. That drawing, Steve thought, was beautiful.

**[Fourth Year]**

Steve didn’t go home for Christmas break. His mom was too ill, with tuberculosis, the doctors said, and she didn’t want him to be in any danger. Bucky stayed with him, even though he didn’t have to.

It wasn’t until the fourth day of break, though, that they walked into the Great Hall and found Natasha alone at the Slytherin table, her red hair covering her face as she ate her porridge.

Steve waited till she finally looked up.

“You didn’t go home for break?” he asked her, still surprised.

A flicker of something he couldn’t decipher flashed across her face. “I never go home for breaks,” she said.

“Why not?”

“I don’t have anywhere to go.” She said this casually, like it wasn’t a big deal, but she stood up as she spoke, her breakfast only half finished. She was gone before he could think to ask her what she meant.

“Oh, yeah,” Bucky said, when Steve mentioned this to him. “I heard she’s an orphan or something.”

That night, Steve pulled out all the candy from Honeydukes he hadn’t had a chance yet to eat and wrapped in all in a small box. Early the next morning, he left it on the Slytherin table, in the same spot he always saw Natasha sit at.

She never said anything to him, but that night at dinner, the present was gone. And Steve swore she smiled at him every time he passed her in the corridor

**[Fifth Year]**

The crowd at the edge of the lake was growing restless. The Hogwarts champion and the Beauxbatons champion had been back with their rescued captive for almost an hour now. But the Russian champion, Alexi Shostakov, was nowhere to be seen.

Steve was especially anxious. He knew exactly who Alexi was supposed to rescue. Natasha. He hadn’t left her side since they had met. Not that Steve was at all jealous, but he couldn’t help but notice these things. And now she was missing, nowhere to be seen. 

There was only one possibility: the bottom of the lake.

He shifted from foot to foot, his teeth worrying his bottom lip. Bucky nudged him.

“They won’t let her die, you know.”

But Steve wasn’t willing to take any chances. It was too easy for something to go wrong. It was dark down there. Freezing. If whatever magic was in use down there wavered just a little … It wouldn’t take long for something to happen, for something to go tragically wrong.

That was it. He couldn’t stand here. And before anyone could stop him, he was rushing like a madman toward the lake, throwing himself in, even as he could hear the roar of the crowd behind him.

An hour later Bucky was still shaking his head at him. “They wouldn’t have let her die,” he said again. 

Steve didn’t answer. The professors were deciding his punishment for interfering, but one look at the wet, shivering girl still sitting beside him, and he knew it had been worth it.

Natasha caught his eye, and she smiled weakly at him, even as her lips trembled from the cold. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Steve shrugged. “I’m sorry I didn’t let your boyfriend save you.”

Natasha frowned at him, her brows furrowing as she scrunched her nose up a little. “He’s not my boyfriend,” she said. “Not even close.”

“Good,” Steve said, as Headmaster Fury gestured to him to get up.

“Very good,” he thought he heard Natasha say as he walked away.

**[Sixth Year]**

Natasha asked him to the Yule Ball. She walked right up to him, in the middle of a Gryffindor Quidditch practice, as Sam, his teammate, yelled at her that Snakes weren’t allowed in their midst and asked him straight out if he would go with her.

He stared at her, almost in disbelief, as he heard his teammates whistle behind him.

“Well?” she said, crossing her arms as she waited. She looked almost cross she had to wait so long for an answer. 

“You want to go with me?” Steve asked, just to make sure he’d heard her correctly.

“Yes, you big dummy. Who else would I go with?” She grinned at him, her green eyes sparkling a little.

“He’ll go with you.” Bucky smacked Steve on the upper arm. “He will definitely go with you.”

“I will?” Steve stammered, then, “I mean, I will. Yes. I will.”

“Good,” Natasha said. Her lips curved up into a smirk. “Maybe I’ll even let you kiss me.”

**[Seventh Year]**

It was definitely spring. The weather had warmed up enough that they could spend their afternoons lying in the grass, studying for their exams. Their favorite spot was the towering oak by the lake, Natasha curled into Steve’s side. 

“I don’t want this to end,” she whispered to him one lazy afternoon near the end of April.

“Studying?”

Her lips quirked up. “Hogwarts.”

Steve thought about that. He loved Hogwarts, but part of him was already ready to be in London with Bucky, already ready to be at the Ministry to start his Auror training. But Natasha … Hogwarts was the only real home she had ever had. Steve was one of the only people she had ever trusted.

His arm tightened around her, feeling her pressed against him.

“Come with me,” he said. “To London. Move in with me. Live with me.”

He felt Natasha stiffen, just slightly. “Steve …”

“I mean it,” he said. “I love you. Come to London with me.”

“Come to London with you?” Her voice was soft, almost hesitant.

His wasn’t. He repeated his sentiment with more emphasis. “Come to London with me.”

It felt like the longest thirty seconds of his life.

“Okay,” she finally said. “I will.”


End file.
